Friday, September 30, 2016

Friday Favourites

Today is a super happy Friday, as it's my Birthday! I feel like I've not had a day off to myself for months, so I'm very much looking forward to relaxing and a day of shopping in Exeter today, I also have the Plymouth Breakwater swim to look forward to on Sunday *gulp*. I thought Friday favourites would coincide well with my Birthday, as these items are all things that are making me incredibly happy and making my week that bit better at the moment! It's a mash up of beauty, lifestyle and underwear in today's post - all the non essentials, but that are definitely necessities that I couldn't dare to live without nowadays!

Is there really anything better than new WonderbraUK* underwear and pink roses? Probably not. I'm not afraid to admit that I really don't indulge in buying new underwear as much as I would like, I guess it's a bit like how some people hate shoe shopping, I just can't be bothered with the faff of it and more times than not, I'd rather spend my money on new clothes or shoes! But when I do start treating myself to new underwear I go all out, and I just love the white lace details and plunge neckline of this bra, it's perfect for wearing under white shirts during the week, whilst still feeling a slightly bit glamorous!

The Little Book of Hygge is undoubtedly my favourite book purchase of 2016. I'm sure you've seen the cover of this bandied around social media over the last month, but if not, Hygge is the Danish way of living, which is basically a feeling, it's one of those words that doesn't have direct translation. Hygge is being cosy, safe and warm - FYI my hygge would definitely be a stormy night, tucked up in bed with my fairy lights on whilst watching Harry Potter, pretty dreamy huh?

I felt like I was being cocooned with comfort whilst I read this book, there are a variety of different topics in the book to help you achieve hygge in all areas of your life. I particularly like the 'building your own hygge survival box' chapter, it's definitely on my list to create! The best thing about this book is that it's not one that you read from start to finish, you can dip in and out of the sections as you wish. I've become so obsessed with this way of living that I spontaneously booked flights to Copenhagen for New Year Eves! So ready for all the hygeeligt times ahead!

I finally bought into the lip lingerie craze from NYX on my holiday in Barcelona this year as my love for nude lip products continues, I swear I wear nude lip products more than I go bare these days. The Lip Lingerie products are available in 12 shades, and this one is called Babydoll. They're a cross between a lipstick/lipgloss product without the drying nature of matte lipsticks. In Plymouth there is now a full stand of NYX products in our boots store, so hook me up with your recommendations below, as I feel a haul coming on!

I've never been a massive coffee drinker, actually I've never tried coffee (I know!). I'm not even a massive tea drinker, and actually drink water 90% of the time. But if there's any way to get me to try coffee it's through amazing branding and a selection of tasty flavours. I've seen Beanies before and have heard amazing things about them, my old colleague loved them so much that he had literally every flavour sat on his desk, you know, just when you need a little pick me up at 11am.

What I love about Beanies is that they sell both regular coffee and decaf coffee - perfect for a pick me up without being kept up all night with insomnia. For my first dip into the world of Coffee, I chose the Double Chocolate regular coffee flavour, Amaretto Almond and Chocolate Orange Decaf instant coffee - I picked really distinctive tastes so I would have a much higher chance of actually liking the taste of coffee. I've tested each flavour so far and although I may not be a fully fledged coffee lover yet (currently addicted to ice tea FYI), it's actually okay. The double chocolate coffee flavour has been my favourite so far for obvious reasons, it's practically like drinking hot chocolate, it's probably not something that I would have with my breakfast, but it's certainly a nice mid afternoon treat! My dad is also completely won over by these flavours, he's an avid coffee drinker so I think he knows when he tastes good coffee!

I've had this Nuxe Paris Masque Creme Fraiche de Beaute sitting around in my cupboard for the last 9 months, I received this in a make your own Birchbox for Christmas last year, and until this month I thought it was a face cream. Upon closer inspection it is in fact a face mask which is coincidentally my favourite type of facial product. This mask promises to rehydrate your facial skin for 24 hours whilst soothing and calming any redness or dry patches.

This mask is incredibly similar to the Origins Drink Up Mask, but I much prefer the smell of this one, and my skin has never felt so good after leaving it on to work its magic for 10 minutes. It helps to put that much needed glow back into my skin after early starts and late nights training in a chlorinated swimming pool. It's the perfect little pick me up for your skin - and it's going to be a lifesaver during the winter weather. It's actually cheaper than the origins mask, so it's a no brainer as far as I'm concerned!

Like probably half the population of the earth, I'm addicted to Cacti. You'll know that if you got the scoop on my Columbia Road Flower Market post! There's something about them that's so happy, cute and did I mention they're incredibly low maintenance? You don't drastically need to worry about these dying. I also didn't realise that the mini ones actually grow, and one of my individual cactus's has sprouted into three which is just adorable. I'm now on the search for copper pots to repot all of them. If you know of any nice ones please link me up in the comments or drop me a tweet!

I thought I'd throw something completely random into the mix and talk about an evening that I experienced in Ivybridge (10 mins from Plymouth) this month and really enjoyed. To coincide with the 100th anniversary of the birth of Roald Dahl, The Watermark had been putting on a series of different events to celebrate and remember his fantastic books and plays. I was lucky enough to be invited down for 'An evening of the unexpected' - it was certainly something a bit different to what I would normally go to, and despite only living 10 minutes away I'd never heard of the venue before that holds lots of similar events. It's also home to a cinema and a cafe, I think this place definitely needs to be advertised more in the Plymouth area though as I felt that it was mostly locals that attended the evening.

The evening was certainly unexpected, and it included choir singers, watching Lamb to the Slaughter, a 2 course meal, all ending with a Roald Dahl themed quiz. It was certainly a random mismatch of events, but it definitely worked. It was refreshing to do something different for a change with my evening, and it's nice to discover other local venues that put on such events. Not forgetting, that it was amazing evening remembering the amazing Roald Dahl, many an hour was spent reading his books when I was younger!

What do you think of my Friday favourites? What have you been loving this month?

*Products marked with an asterix (*) have been sent to me for review. However, all opinions in this post are 100% my own

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